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The Halloween 2013 thread

I don't know about you, but for me the Halloween season pretty much begins in late august, so it's taken great restraint to hold back on posting this thread until September. Anywas, woohoo! Halloween's coming! Candy! Scary movies! Costumes! Leaves! Cider! Pumpkins!!

To help celebrate, I'm making sure to add lots of creepy blogposts to thepicreview from now until Halloween! Scary movie reviews, spooky toy reviews, decoration reviews, Halloween nostaliga: it's 2 full months of hokey Halloween horror!

So, what're everyone's favorite Halloween goodies? I just saw the pumpkin cakes out at the store the other day. I want to pick up a box because they're awesome, but I rarely finish them.

Don't usually celebrate Halloween season until October, but I like the candy corn and those candy pumpkins when it hits October. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kats rule too. My wife likes getting pumpkin spice lattes from the various coffee venues.

We have lots of kids in our neighborhood, so I get a ton of bagged candy for the Trick or Treaters weeks before Halloween.

My wife and I usually hold off on scary movies until October. So it's a treat to watch those films then. In the last few years, I've really gotten into the British Hammer Horror films.

And of course classic American monster films like "Monster Squad". Halloween TV specials (Charlie Brown, Garfield, etc...) and the best of the best, the Simpsons Treehouse of Horror.

My favorite Halloween related film of all is "The Worst Witch". I watched it with my sister growing up, and rediscovered it a few years ago on DVD. Nothing like Tim Curry's music video in that film. It's totally hokey, but I love it.

I love it and look forward to it - that weekend, actually - 10/30 is my wedding anniversary. I stock up on scary books from the library and scary movies on Netflix.

However - lately it's been rough...three years ago, my mom died in October. Two years ago, we had that freak blizzard that knocked out power for a few days, which no one was prepared for...and then last year, Superstorm Sandy knocked us for a loop so we had no power (or heat, gas, and in some cases, food) for a week. (Though we improvised...last year I read Dracula aloud by candlelight on Halloween, and we did Frankenstein the year before that!)

So the kids around here haven't been able to trick or treat properly in two years, and I (personally) haven't really been able to enjoy Halloween at all for years. I'm really hoping this year is a turn for the better - I'm looking forward to it, anyway!

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year as well! The candy! The chill in the air! The scary movies! The CANDY!

I have a number of traditions with my family and friends. We usually have a game night/scary movie night. I have Halloween versions of Uno, Jenga, Operation (Nightmare before Xmas), and of course, the Ouija Board!

We usually watch the some of the same movies as well. They usually include Trick r Treat (A movie that really should've made it's way into theatres!), Halloween 1 and 3 (3 is just b/c it's such a weird departure from the rest of the series), Sleepy Hollow, and Hocus pocus. We will sometimes watch Halloween episodes of our favorite shows and cartoons from the past, including Buffy, Scooby Doo, Roseanne, and Charlie Brown.

We usually manage to go to at least two local haunted attractions. Since we live near PA, we've been to places like Jason's Woods, Field of Screams, and even gone to Eastern State Peneitentary in Philly for their haunted attraction. (It's a must see if you have a chance. Very very cool!). Last year we went to Busch Gardens for their haunts in October, which was really fun. Much of the park is covered in fog after dark, which is incredible when you think about how many fog machines that must take! They also have roaming bands of zombies and werewolves, which was a lot of fun.

A couple years ago I went Salem, Ma for Halloween. It was cool, but it was really bad weather, and there was actually snow I did get to check out some of the Witch museum and see some mock witch trials. I'd love to go back sometime!

Halloweens is my fav holiday. Like others have said.....love the feeling in the air mainly. I still dress up and go get candy. I watch many horror movies(The Universal Monster classics, Halloween's..., Monster Squad, Rosanne Halloween specials... haha Many candles burning etc. Im out in the country so no trick o treaters here. But I get excited when Halloween is coming. Yay Halloween!

So far this year, I've watched: Predator (although I watch that movie every third Tuesday), Baracuda, Poltergeist 2, You're Next, Halloween, Freddy's Dead: the Final Nightmare, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Super 8, and The Fog! This year's going to be the best Halloween ever! I just got back and bought some more Halloween decorations from the store. They were cheap and looked kind of cool. I also had my dad send me some old pictures of homemade gravestones I made as a kid: http://www.thepicreview.com/2013/09/tombstones-of-halloweens-past.html

Anyone planning on dressing up? I'm excited since my daughter was just born in August, so now I have an excuse to go trick or treating again! I just got the Matty PKE meter and Ecto Goggles, so I think I'm going to work on a Ghostbusters costume.

That's something I need to try sometime- growing pumpkins. I'd love to have a huge pumpkin patch in my yard!

Anyways, went to Target the other day looking for some of their little Halloween toys they often put out but I didn't see anything yet. Actually, as of Monday they didn't have their Halloween stuff out. I did find some of the little horror themed CityVille Invasion Kreons at Wal-Mart, though. I bought one of the blind bagged two packs and got the wetsuit guy versus the Gill Monster (crawled the Wavecrawler). I reviewed them since they're kind of spooky and fun: http://www.thepicreview.com/2013/09/spooky-toy-review-walter-wetsuit.html

That's something I need to try sometime- growing pumpkins. I'd love to have a huge pumpkin patch in my yard!

You'll have to hit up MOTU_Maniac for growing tips. I have never gotten even a single pumpkin. Even Zucchini wouldn't grow in my garden, and that stuff will grow just about anywhere. I need a new garden... oh, wait...

I love halloween as well. My brother in law, dad and myself put together a charity haunted house every year. This will be our 12th year. We raise money for the local food bank. We actually are going to start constructing the haunt next weekend. Its tons of fun. I love the season, the apple orchards, and scaring the crap out of the TOT's! check us out at http://www.mourningcemetery.com

i'm pumped for halloween! i got my first house earlier this year and i'm dying to put up some decorations. i've spent the last few halloweens at my brother's house so i could take my nephew trick-or-treating. this year i may skip out and stay home, depending on how busy my neighborhood gets.

I love Halloween! I look forward to it every year. I've started working on my cosplay project, I'm doing Chun Li this year I've done it before, but I was short on time and there's plenty of room for improvement.

I used to grow pumpkins with my Dad when I was little, then we bought a dog and he ate most of the plants before they produced anything. I LOVE pumpkin. Pumpkin everything: soup, pie, muffins, lattes, you name it. Starbucks has their pumpkin scones in (finally) I'm so excited! I look forward to those every year; they are to die for!

I have 5 huge totes of decorations, all for my yard. We moved last year and I wasn't sure what they neighbourhood kids were like, so I didn't decorate in case I ran the risk of destruction. Most of my decorations are hand made by me, and I'd be crushed if they got stolen or destroyed. Unfortunately I live in the ghetto. Everyone takes their kids trick or treating up the hill in the wealthy part of town. I only had 8 kids last year. It was disappointing to say the least. My previous house brought in 250-300 kids every year. I always looked forward to seeing the adorable kids in costume.

As far as movies go, I'm a huge Tim Burton fan. I watch all of his movies this time of year. The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror is a staple, as well as Charlie Brown of course.

Oh! Costumes and decorations should be arriving in stores in the next week or so. Fun size candy comes in with the Back to School set up, then Halloween arrives shortly after that. I agree that it should be in stores sooner. There's so much to prepare for! It should also be a stat. I was complaining to my boss about that yesterday :P

I usually host a huge costume party every year too, but I'm taking a year off. I'm hoping someone else will host. It's just so much work, and I've been doing it for years. I go all out with costumes, decor, food, everything. It's too expensive and too much work. It's someone else's turn this year.

Since I was a kid Halloween has been a HUGE deal. In the fall my city relatives would come out to the farm for a weekend or hayrides, bonfires, and general Partying. We would have a Haunted trail through the neighboring woods, where my sisters friends and my group of goonies would scare the begeezus out of everyone. We finally had to call a stop to it the year we ended up with 500 people here one night and didn't know 1/3 of them.
One year Dad came home with a 71 cadillac Ambulance. That was no end of fun. I miss that car.

Every year I would take my friends and their younger sibs trick or treating. I made a big deal out of it, had the same costume for years. Zombie Heff, a ragged out red velvet smoking jacket.

Things fell out for about 10 years as I tried to make my own in the world. When that fell apart and I landed back on the family farm, my neighbor came to me with a proposition. He wanted to turn his barn into a Haunted attraction. He'd been having halloween party's for his kids there for a few years, and like our parties, it had gotten bigger every year. Finally he decided to give it a go professionally and wanted to know if I wanted in.
I had nothing to invest but time and talent, and that is how Professor Phere was born.

I am now ghost host with the most, your monster of scareimonies, Door keeper and ticket taker at Salem's Haunted Village in the tiny town of Capac. I missed the last 3 years because I was usually in the hospital, but am looking forward to donning the top hat again this year and reclaiming my station at the door.

Halloween is my favorite holiday as well. I enjoyed reading through your blog; I love seeing pictures of Halloween creations from childhood. I usually start decorating around mid-September, but I decided to start a little early this year. Unfortunately, it seems like fewer people in my area decorate for Halloween every year, not to mention the stores start putting out the Christmas decorations in the middle of October.

I love Halloween too. October to December is my favorite time of year because each month ends with a cool holiday to appreciate.

About 10 years ago, I bought a pretty nice wizard costume, and I've worn it whenever I hand out candy. Last year, a kid in the neighborhood saw me and said, "COOL! A Wizard!" His little buddy rolled his eyes and said, "Nah, he wore that last year!"

Halloween is better than Christmas for me. My birthday is that month and what is there not to like about candy. We have more halloween tradition than we do any other holiday. We always watch shocker at the least then a Friday the thirteenth or two, if not Freddy and/or Chucky make the rotation. We stuff scarecrows. My extended family has come over for the last five years and we carve 75 to 100 pumpkins. This year I planted some that are susposed to get up to 200 lbs and one looks like it'll make that mark. Then we make cider and party into the wee hours. Yeah, Halloween is great and very memorable for my entire family.